Short Stormy Field Day 2019

Stats and photos below below so check them out !!

Well the SEKARC Field Day 2019 was abbreviated but as always we learned things to improve and truly put emergency power generation to the test. We had a tri-band vertical on top of the tower for 2m, 70cm and 6m. Attached to the tower were 3 dipoles for 20m, 40m and 80m.

We used the Crawford County Emergency Management tower with generator. We were rolling good for a few hours. Sitting on 40m running pileup after pileup. Then everything went quiet and power was off. Generator failed, clogged fuel filter we suspect was the culprit. We made a trip to O'reilly for a replacement and a call was placed to Jason the Emergency Manager. And once again Jason saved the day and within 30 minutes he another BIGGER generator on site. And we were back on the air and fans were blowing again.

Jason later brought us the correct replacement filter he found at Tractor Supply. The one we bought was close but not the perfect fit. So it was a good test for Jason and he determined the tower trailer generator needed a tuneup and service check.

Another life saver was Bruce KØEMG who brought a grill, and chips and cooked us burgers for lunch and chicken for dinner. THANKS again Bruce. We just totally had not thought that far. Oh and by the way... the lights on top of large stand alone generator were awesome and DAYLIGHT BRIGHT. We lit up that park like never before. (Well we had to test them right?)

We were rolling good until the overnight storms rolled in. We had a goal of 1,000 contacts and if we had kept the original pace we would have easily exceeded that goal. We did learn a few things. One of those being that if there are storms in the forecast next Field Day we will not even mess with the tower. We are bound to have some good weather one of these years... right ?

We even got some public service time and got to help out the Crawford County Emergency Management bu touching up some paint on the trailer. We repainted  the 4 wheels and cleaned and painted the two motors that operated the tower. Great job SEKARC !!

Thanks to all that showed up, help setup, operate, log, cook and visit. It was still a good weekend. By 6am Sunday we were back home packed away and tower and generators back at the county site. Now time to think about making Field Day 2020 even better !!

Avg Qs/Hr (breaks > 30 min deducted): 66.0
 Total Contacts by Band and Mode:
 Band      CW  Ph      Dig     Total       %
 ----       --   -----     ---   -----     ---
   80             0       1       0         1           0
   40             0     426       0      426      93
   20             0      21       0       21          5
   15              0       8       0        8            2
    2                0       1       0        1           0
            --   -----     ---   -----     ---
 Total            0     457       0     457     100